Grimm's Household Tales

There was once a poor peasant who sat by the hearth in the evening and poked the fire, while his wife sat and spun. Then he said, “How sad it is that we have no children! Everything is so quiet with us, and in other houses it is noisy and lively.”

“Yes,” replied the wife, and sighed. “Even if we had only one, and it were quite small, only as big as a thumb, I would be quite satisfied, and we would still love it with all our hearts.” Now it so happened that the woman fell ill, and after seven months she gave birth to a child that was perfect in all its limbs but no longer than a thumb. Then they said, “It is as we wished it to be, and it shall be our dear child.” Because of its size, they called it Thumbling. They did not let it go without food, but the child did not grow taller. It remained as it had been at first. Nevertheless, it looked out of its eyes with good sense, and it soon showed itself to be a wise and nimble creature, for everything it did turned out well.

One day the peasant was getting ready to go into the forest to cut wood, when he said as if to himself, “How I wish there were someone who would bring the cart to me!” “Oh, father,” cried Thumbling, “I will soon bring the cart, rely on that. It shall be in the forest at the appointed time.” The man smiled and said, “How can that be done? You are far too small to lead the horse by the reins.” “That’s of no consequence, father. If my mother will only harness it, I shall sit in the horse’s ear and call out to him how he is to go.” “Well,” answered the man, “we will try it for once.”

When the time came, the mother harnessed the horse and placed Thumbling in its ear, and then the little creature cried, “Giddyap, giddyap!”

Then it went quite properly, as if with its master, and the cart went the right way into the forest. It so happened that just as he was turning a corner, and the little one was crying, “Giddyap,” two strange men came toward him. “My word!” said one of them. “What is this? There is a cart coming, and a driver is calling to the horse, and still he is not to be seen!” “That can’t be right,” said the other. “We will follow the cart and see where it stops.” The cart, however, drove right into the forest, and exactly to the place where the wood had been cut. When Thumbling saw his father, he cried to him, “Do you see, father? Here I am with the cart. Now take me down.” The father held the horse with his left hand and with the right took his little son out of the ear. Thumbling sat down quite merrily on a straw, but when the two strange men saw him, they did not know what to say for astonishment. Then one of them took the other aside and said, “Listen, the little fellow would make our fortune if we exhibited him in a large town for money. We will buy him.” They went to the peasant and said, “Sell us the little man. He shall be well treated with us.” “No,” replied the father, “he is the apple of my eye, and all the money in the world cannot buy him from me.” Thumbling, however, when he heard of the bargain, had crept up the folds of his father’s coat, placed himself on his shoulder, and whispered in his ear, “Father, do give me away. I will soon come back again.” Then the father parted with him to the two men for a handsome sum of money. “Where will you sit?” they said to him. “Oh, just set me on the brim of your hat, and then I can walk back and forth and look at the countryside, and still not fall down.” They did as he wished, and when Thumbling had taken leave of his father, they went away with him. They walked until it was dusk, and then the little fellow said, “Do take me down. I want to get down.” The man took his hat off and put the little fellow on the ground by the wayside, and he leapt and crept about a little between the clumps of earth, and then he suddenly slipped into a mouse hole that he had picked out. “Good evening, gentlemen, just go home without me,” he cried to them, and mocked them. They ran over to it and stuck their sticks into the mouse hole, but it was all wasted effort. Thumbling crept still farther in, and as it soon became quite dark, they had to go home in their annoyance, with their empty purses.

When Thumbling saw that they were gone, he crept back out of the underground passage. “It is so dangerous to walk on the ground in the dark,” he said. “How easily a neck or a leg is broken!” Fortunately he bumped into an empty snail shell. “Thank God!” he said. “In that I can pass the night in safety,” and he got into it. Not long afterward, when he was just going to sleep, he heard two men go by, and one of them was saying, “How shall we manage to get hold of the rich pastor’s silver and gold?” “I could tell you that,” cried Thumbling, interrupting them. “What was that?” said one of the thieves in fright. “I heard someone speaking.” They stood still, listening, and Thumbling spoke again and said, “Take me with you, and I’ll help you.”

“But where are you?” “Just look on the ground, and notice where my voice comes from,” he replied. There the thieves at length found him and lifted him up. “You little imp, how will you help us?” they said. “A great deal,” he said. “I will creep into the pastor’s room through the iron bars and will reach out to you whatever you want to have.” “Come, then,” they said, “and we will see what you can do.” When they got to the pastor’s house, Thumbling crept into the room, but instantly cried out with all his might, “Do you want to have everything that is here?” The thieves were alarmed and said, “But do speak softly, so as not to wake anyone!” Thumbling, however, behaved as if he had not understood this, and cried again, “What do you want? Do you want to have everything that is here?” The cook, who slept in the next room, heard this, sat up in bed, and listened. The thieves, however, had run some distance away in their fright, but at last they took courage and thought, “The little rascal wants to mock us.” They came back and whispered to him, “Come, be serious, and reach something out to us.” Then Thumbling again cried as loudly as he could, “I really will give you everything. Just put your hands in.” The maid, who was listening, heard this quite distinctly, jumped out of bed, and rushed to the door. The thieves took flight and ran as if the Wild Huntsman were behind them, but as the maid could not see anything, she went to strike a light. When she came to the place with it, Thumbling, unseen, went off to the barn, and the maid, after she had examined every corner and found nothing, lay down in her bed again and believed that, after all, she had only been dreaming with open eyes and ears.

Thumbling had climbed up among the hay and found a beautiful place to sleep. There he intended to rest until day and then go home again to his parents. But he had other things to go through. Truly, there is much affliction and misery in this world! When day dawned, the maid got up from her bed to feed the cows. Her first walk was into the barn, where she took hold of an armful of hay, and it was precisely the one in which poor Thumbling was lying asleep. He, however, was sleeping so soundly that he was aware of nothing, and he did not wake until he was in the mouth of the cow, who had picked him up with the hay. “Ah, heavens!” he cried. “How did I get into the fulling mill?” But he soon discovered where he was. Then he had to be careful not to let himself go between the teeth and be torn to pieces, but he was nevertheless forced to slip down into the stomach with the hay. “In this little room the windows have been forgotten,” he said, “and no sun shines in, nor will a candle be brought.” His quarters were especially unpleasant to him, and the worst of it was that more and more hay kept coming in by the door, and the space grew less and less. Then at length, in his anguish, he cried as loud as he could, “Bring me no more fodder, bring me no more fodder!” The maid was just milking the cow, and when she heard someone speaking and saw no one, and realized that it was the same voice she had heard in the night, she was so terrified that she slipped off her stool and spilled the milk. She ran in great haste to her master and said, “Oh, heavens, pastor, the cow has been speaking!” “You are mad,” replied the pastor, but he went himself to the cow barn to see what was there. Hardly had he set his foot inside when Thumbling cried again, “Bring me no more fodder, bring me no more fodder!” Then the pastor himself was alarmed, thought that an evil spirit had gone into the cow, and ordered her to be killed. She was killed, but the stomach in which Thumbling was trapped was thrown on the manure heap. Thumbling had great difficulty working his way out. However, he succeeded in getting some room, but just as he was about to thrust his head out, a new misfortune occurred. A hungry wolf ran up and swallowed the whole stomach in one gulp. Thumbling did not lose courage. “Perhaps,” he thought, “the wolf will listen to what I have to say,” and he called to him from inside his stomach, “Dear wolf, I know of a magnificent feast for you.”

“Where is it to be had?” said the wolf.

“In such and such a house. You must creep into it through the kitchen sink, and you will find cakes and bacon and sausages, as much of them as you can eat.” And he described his father’s house to him exactly. The wolf did not need to be told this twice. He squeezed himself in through the sink at night and ate to his heart’s content in the pantry. When he had eaten his fill, he wanted to go out again, but he had become so big that he could not go out the same way. Thumbling had counted on this and now began to make a violent noise in the wolf’s body, raging and screaming as loudly as he could. “Will you be quiet?” said the wolf. “You will wake up the people!” “Eh, what,” replied the little fellow. “You have eaten your fill, and I will make merry too,” and he began once more to scream with all his strength. At last his father and mother were awakened by it, and they ran to the room and looked in through the opening in the door. When they saw that a wolf was inside, they ran away, and the husband fetched his axe and the wife the scythe. “Stay behind,” said the man when they entered the room. “When I have given him a blow, if he is not killed by it, you must cut him down and hack his body to pieces.” Then Thumbling heard his parents’ voices and cried, “Dear father, I am here. I am in the wolf’s body.” Said the father, full of joy, “Thank God, our dear child has found us again,” and he told the woman to put away her scythe, so that Thumbling would not be hurt with it. After that he raised his arm and struck the wolf such a blow on the head that he fell down dead, and then they got knives and scissors, cut his body open, and drew the little fellow out. “Ah,” said the father, “what sorrow we have gone through for your sake.” “Yes, father, I have gone about the world a great deal. Thank heaven, I breathe fresh air again!” “Where have you been, then?” “Ah, father, I have been in a mouse’s hole, in a cow’s stomach, and then in a wolf’s. Now I will stay with you.” “And we will not sell you again, no, not for all the riches in the world,” said his parents, and they embraced and kissed their dear Thumbling. They gave him food and drink and had some new clothes made for him, for his own had been spoiled on his journey.